Tiki Tank is looking for a new owner

UPDATE: We have found new owners and are in the process of transitioning ownership

Tiki Tank Crew will not be going to Burning Man this year and we have decided to sell the Tiki Tank Mutant vehicle. We would like to find a passionate crew to operate and pass on the goodwill and reputation we have developed over the years.

It is currently registered with the Burning Man DMV for 2016 and any transfer of ownership will include coordination with their licensing.

The origin story

Burning Man 2010 was plagued with soft dust dunes all over the city and playa, making it difficult to bike around. After multiple bike spills, Jaq and I decided to walk around, hoping to jump on art cars whenever possible. Turns out many other people had this idea too and most vehicles were fairly overloaded. Our attempts to hitch rides were quickly shot down by excuses of “you’re not pretty enough” , “you’re not part of our camp”, “you don’t have the VIP pass”.

At that point we decided: “Fuck you, we’re gonna build the biggest art car we can and allow anybody and everybody on it”

2011: Playa Palace 1.0

Built in just a couple months, the design was very simple. Using primarily wood and LED rope lights it allowed us to ferry people around and provide a platform for entertainment.

2012: Playa Palace 2.0

Improving on the design from the previous year by building steel framing for an upper platform. This allowed more people to ride, but also taught us a lot about entertaining a larger crowd. Build goals included quicker assembly, easier egress for passengers, multiple event versatility.

2013: Tiki Tank 1.0

Complete redesign of the whole vehicle.

With the Cargo Cult theme announced, we knew we wanted to build a tank. Addressable LED’s were just becoming available and we designed custom electronics controllers to mimic rolling treads when the vehicle was moving. Permanent wiring harnesses with all wires pre-routed, making assembly plug and play.

2014: Tiki Tank 2.0

Continued refinement of the tank including reskinning all surfaces and much quicker assembly by improving design. New lighting electronics and controllers. All lights are now controlled via a tablet on wifi with a huge array of lighting effects pre-programmed. Custom web UI allows for changing of all segments and effects. Over 2000 hours were put into design and building that year.

Photos:

2015: Tiki Tank 3.0

Focus on passenger comfort by improving shade and interior layout, including a bar. Additional lighting effects and further improvements in ease of assembly. Source code: https://github.com/hmflash/tikitank

The vehicle takes 2 people to operate, 1 driver, 1 wrangler/entertainer for the back. The goal was to build the biggest, most impressive art car without the need for a huge support crew. Because it’s so simple to operate, we typically put on 200+ miles of driving around on the playa each year.